Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Herb, Cheese and Veggie Pull Apart Bread

I am baking a bread today after a very long time. Even though I like baking and making my own breads, somehow kept running away from baking breads for quite somewhile now. So from this new year I have decided to bake as much as possible, atleast for this year. And to my luck Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen started Bread Baking event for this year. So I wanted to participate in it and sent a request to her yesterday. She was very grateful to let me participate. But since this month is already on going to end, so she wanted me to post it immediately.

And here I am baking this months Bread, that is, The Pull Apart Bread. I have followed the same recipe she gave us. Except that for the filling I added some veggies. Thats it.I was so excited about baking a bread after a long time that I totally forgot I didn't have a Bread load tin or the normal rectangle high raised tin. So I looked and looked for sometime all my baking tins and then decided to bake it in this oven proof glass dish. And that is why my bread got flattened because it took spread and took the shape of the container during the second proofing.

For
the Dough:

1/2
cup warm milk

1 tsp
sugar

2 tsp
active dry yeast

2 3/4
to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp
salt

25gm
butter, soft at room temperature

3/4 to
1 tsp garlic paste (I used 1 t.sp Garlic Powder)

3/4
cup milk (+ a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread)

For
the Filling:

15 to
20gm melted butter

2 tsp
dried Italian mixed herbs

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 medium carrot grated

1/2 cup olives chopped

Crushed
pepper/ red chilli flakes to taste

1/2
cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Method:

As
almost always, I used my food processor but you may knead the dough by hand.

In a
small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep
aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.

Put 2
3/4 cup of flour, salt, softened butter, and garlic paste in the food processor
bowl (or a large bowl) and pulse a couple of times to mix. Then add the yeast
mixture and the 3/4 cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and
elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour if your
dough is sticking,but only just as much as is necessary.

Shape the
dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat
it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or
until almost double in volume.

Dust
your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square
and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the
surface of the square with the melted butter.

Evenly
sprinkle the herbs, pepper/ chilli flakes, the veggies and then the
grated cheese. Use a rolling pin to very lightly press the topping into the
dough to ensure the topping doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips.

Using
a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips
– they do nothave to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the
topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips.

You
can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks
neater. Using a pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack
dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks).

Grease
and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. Butter and lightly flour a 9 x 5
loaf pan. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. I didn't have a loaf pan and so baked it in a glass dish.

Cover
the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour.

Preheat the oven a 180C.

Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf.

Bake
the dough at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the
top is goldenbrown. It took me 60 minutes to bake, maybe because of the glass dish.